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Tulsi Gabbard, the nominee for director of national intelligence, appears...

Tulsi Gabbard, the nominee for director of national intelligence, appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee for her confirmation hearing on Thursday in Washington. Credit: AP/John McDonnell

Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii turned Donald Trump supporter — and now, nominee for director of national intelligence — has been one of Trump’s more controversial cabinet picks, drawing opposition even from generally compliant Republicans. Whether or not she manages to get confirmed will be a barometer of the extent to which the Trump administration can push the envelope on embracing "antiestablishment" ideas that, not long ago, would have been anathema to virtually all Republicans except for an isolationist right-wing fringe.

Gabbard’s critics have noted that her nomination for a post that involves the coordination of intelligence among various agencies is baffling and ominous given her history of hostility to those very agencies. Gabbard has stated, in social media posts and in her 2024 book "For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind," that intelligence agencies are part of a "shadow government pulling the strings" in the United States, that they have turned American democracy into a "charade." She has consistently challenged, without evidence, the conclusions of U.S. intelligence on such questions as the responsibility of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad for chemical attacks on his people.

A healthy skepticism toward intelligence agencies could be useful for a reformer. But what Gabbard offers isn’t healthy skepticism; it’s a mix of conspiracy theory and a disturbing affinity for anti-American regimes abroad.

In 2017, Gabbard, then a maverick Democrat, was criticized for a "fact-finding" mission to Syria during which she had two long meetings with Assad. According to recent reports, she did not inform either the congressional Ethics Committee or her own staffers of those meetings. The trip was reportedly sponsored by a front group for a pro-Assad, pro-Hamas, rabidly antisemitic fascist party.

Gabbard has made some critical comments about Assad, calling him a "brutal dictator" in 2019. But she always reserved her harshest words for Assad's opponents.

Then there is Gabbard’s history of channeling Kremlin talking points. Since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Gabbard has repeatedly blamed the war on the Biden administration’s refusal to respect Russia’s "legitimate security concerns" about NATO expansion. She has told far-right pundit Tucker Carlson that the Biden administration was conducting a "modern-day siege" against Russia and Putin, using economic warfare and diplomatic isolation.

Gabbard has also boosted Kremlin-peddled conspiracy theories about U.S.-funded "biolabs" in Ukraine. While she went on to clarify that she was not endorsing Russian claims that these laboratories were developing biological weapons, only expressing concern about dangerous pathogens in a war zone, her comments helped promote the Russian canard. Her interviews and videos have been eagerly picked up by the official Russian media, where hosts have referred to her as "our girlfriend Tulsi."

During Thursday's confirmation hearings, Gabbard stood by her record and even refused to disavow her sympathy for Edward Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who fled to Russia with a large trove of classified data after exposing U.S. domestic surveillance.

Critics point out that, like Health and Human Services pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another onetime maverick Democrat, Gabbard is not just a critic but a strident enemy of the agency she has been picked to lead.

In a post on X, Vice President JD Vance writes that both Gabbard and Kennedy must be confirmed because they "represent parts of the new coalition in our party." That would be the conspiracy-addled fringe too crazy for the Democrats. What an addition to GOP ranks.

Opinions expressed by Cathy Young, a writer for The Bulwark, are her own.

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